Really? But there's nothing there. No interactive objects, no doors, elevators or phases. Nothing. Indeed you can only get there by jumping over the wall over on the north east corner of the main base, across from the spaceport. Are we talking about the same place?

Hmmm, I may be thinking of another area. Regardless, there is an area you go to as one of the jedi classes for a mission. There was an area on the bounty hunter/imperial agent starter planet that was removed after beta. I remember it was quite buggy. Something similar may have happened to the area you're referring to, I didn't play Ord Mantell during beta.

So update 1.7 is next tuesday, Reputation and a new Ilum Event are the main points.
Its going to be interesting if the game can handle Ilum PVP better then it did at the beginning of last year. Especially without it ever being on the Public Test Server...

And to brag a little, finally got the Warstalker title last week after trying to do so since release of EC NiM. Take that stupid Kephess and your stupid bleeds and annoying Trandoshan groupies...

The "Secluded Island Facility" that the Jedi Knight visits during its class story is the northernmost part of the Ord Mantell map, on the top of the Oradam Peninsula.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the map. It had been bugging me trying to remember where it had sent me as a Jedi. I could have sworn it sends you to Fort Garnik to meet a contact even though you arrive at the peninsula.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the area I'm talking about is right where the lava flow overlook area meets the Fort Garnik and Avilatan Badlands areas. You get there by going down the main road through the fort, but turn right (west) instead of going left to the space port and there's some rocks in the corner you can use to climb up and over the perimeter wall. You can see the cluster of shield generators on the map.

Finished playing with my Inquisitor character (bar a couple of companion stories; that can wait until a bored moment), so started a Smuggler Gunslinger.

It's weird how fast it I felt I was levelling the second time around. With my first character, so much time was invested in just getting to grips with the game's mechanics. With the second, you can blast through the early game content much more swiftly, such that after a few, relatively brief, play sessions I'm about 80% of the way through Coruscant.

The Smuggler is certainly entertaining; you have a more charming & less acidic of sense humour than the Inquisitor with more flirt options, and if you play light-sided, you can also talk your way out of some dangerous situations, which is an interesting change of pace. Despite my reservations upthread, the cover/shield system works very intuitively. At this stage, the fights seem a lot easier than the equivalent stage of the Inquisitor storyline. I think it's because the shield means that you're less squishy, and Corso seems to be an even beefier tank than Khem. I do feel like I will eventually need something equivalent to the Inquisitor's Overload spell, to temporarily knock back NPCs that get too close, but it's OK at the moment as I just kick them in the nuts or whatever.

The game designers really made the characters FEEL like they're part of Star Wars. Not just in terms of dialogue & appearance, but also how they fight and move. It just feels appropriate for the setting, graphically and in terms of the mechanics.

There is an annoying cosmetic glitch with the Smuggler though; sometimes your blaster fires while holstered, if you've just finished a fight. And I'm not convinced the Recuperation animation of shooting the coin is that appropriate as it seems weird to shoot stuff to regenerate life while you're skulking about, staying out of the way of the next mob. Breaks immersion slightly to see/hear the shooting and for it not attract a mob. Only a minor niggle though.

Don't worry. Slingers get a wicked knockback that's annoyance is dependent on spec. I think they get more than one or it has a really short cooldown. I'm not really sure because I've never played one. It's still the one AC I have yet to try because, for one, I never cared for turrets, and if I roll a smug, I just can't convince myself to not be a scoundrel.

I'm enjoying the game enough that I really should sub, or at least go preferred. It feels kind of daft that all this great content is free, and I know I'm going to want to roll more character at some point. My innate miserliness is such that I probably won't ever sub, but I nearly certain I'll go preferred when I finish the smuggler story.

Thanks again for all the info over the months; it convinced me to take the plunge and start playing a pretty damn cool game.

Speaking of subscriptions, I think $15/mo or less is justified when taking into account that you would pay the same to dine out once, or see a movie. As someone who enjoys all aspects of the game to some extent, I gladly pay a one-time low sum (compared to buying access to the same amount of content individually as an FTPer) to have nothing handicapping my progress. But maybe it's just having been subbed before FTP that makes me unable to imagine anything less.

Speaking of subscriptions, I think $15/mo or less is justified when taking into account that you would pay the same to dine out once, or see a movie. As someone who enjoys all aspects of the game to some extent, I gladly pay a one-time low sum (compared to buying access to the same amount of content individually as an FTPer) to have nothing handicapping my progress. But maybe it's just having been subbed before FTP that makes me unable to imagine anything less.

Click to expand...

Exactly. Even if you only average a 15 hours of month of play time a month, it's still more than worth. I can't imagine many things in the world that offer more entertainment value for $1 an hour.

Yeah, I agree. The Smuggler's very fun to play, and I do get a different sense of play with it than I do with my Jedi Knight. It creates a different kind of atmosphere. I love the snarky remarks you can give and the flirting options.

The only downside is that I feel my skill bar has filled up more quickly. There seem to be more skills associated with it at an early stage. The glitch sounds related to lightsaber glitch that got fixed awhile back.

^
That's only because Smugglers' skills are front-loaded and Knights (Guards especially) are back loaded.

Heck, at launch, Guardians really didn't get anything besides their level 20 spec skill until 35ish. They didn't even get their basic tanking skills (taunt, guard) until much later than Vans/Shadows. Fortunately, Bio realized it was a huge oversight and quickly remedied the problem within the first couple of weeks.

But yeah, Smugs get a lot of goodies early. This is especially true for Slingers who reach close to 90% efficacy by level 30 (or even 25). For most it's not a big deal, but it has been a point of order in the PvP community.

Even dps scoundrels have to wait until 36 & 40 to get their two best skills.